Education for Dominican & Zambian Communities

Chongwe District of Zambia Mobile Library - Knowledge in Motion

PROJECT REPORT

Project Overview:

This is a report on the programs and activities conducted by GRACE Cares and the mobile library project, Munali Youth Empowerment Program (MYEP), with the funding received from the GREAG Foundation and GRACE Cares fundraising on GlobalGiving, which has significantly contributed to an increase in a number of events and operations.

Since the coming in of the new dawn government led by his excellence the president of Zambia, Mr. Hakainde Hichilema, has seen the introduction of free education in early childhood education, primary and secondary school education from January, 2022 onwards. This has given MYEP a fair ground to thrive and make impact and reach out to as many communities as possible.

In this report, there are a number of activities that were approved and in line with the budget that were conducted in the period of review. These are as follows: 

- Purchase of children’s books for the mobile libraries.

- Purchase of bikes for the volunteers to conduct mobile library outreach sessions in the

communities and catchment areas.

- Provide stipends to National Coordinator, Fields Ops Coordinator, and volunteers.

- Put up Mobile Library Booths in MYEP’s operating communities.

- Admin and daily operational costs.

- Training of mobile library volunteers.

- Print t-shirts for the volunteers – promote visibility.

- Review and reporting meetings.

Narrative:

During this reporting period, MYEP has managed to purchase 3 bicycles for use in the field for outreach and for conducting children’s group sessions in the community. This is in addition to the only functioning one. The new bicycles have each a carrier with a small container behind where volunteers are able to carry books to conduct their sessions in far or distant places. 

MYEP has since given stipends to its staff and volunteers as some form of motivation and appreciation for the work and effort they have put in in the past six months. This is to help them meet some expenses they used while doing their outreach activities. More so, we managed to print branded t-shirts for new volunteers to be trained. So far, we have recruited 8 new volunteers. This will bring the total number of volunteers to 11.

Under this new funding, MYEP will increase its outreach points in the community from 4 to 8. The new locations include George/Matero compounds, Mandevu compound, Chaisa compound and Children urban. We have also set up and erected Mobile Library Booths in 3 locations in the mentioned locations for children to access books that are rotated on a regular basis. Stationery and some office utilities were purchased for the office to help with the operations and smooth running of the organization.

We also conducted a familiarization tour/orientation visit to all MYEP sites and locations for the Global Coordinator, Blessed Ngoma. This was in an effort to give him a picture of the current status and give him a feel of what is happening on the ground. He also had a series of meetings with the officials from the City Council of Lusaka and some partner organizations that fostered collaboration and networking. Of late, we have seen an increase in the number of children that are attending our mobile libraries and sessions in the communities. The sessions with children always include encouraging the children to go back to school since it’s now free of charge.

Activities:

1. Number of mobile librarians trained: 8

2. Number of mobile librarians compensated: 4

3. Number of bikes purchased: 3

4. Number of households visited: 150

5. Number of children reached: 203

6. Number of Villages/Compounds reached: 6

Testimonials:

1. Chanda

Grade 5, 10 years old.

Resides in Kabwta site and service.

Meet Chanda, a regular reader with our Libala South, one of the Mobile Library outreach points. I noticed one thing about Chanda is that he is interested in books that were based on poems or artistic in nature. He read a few books that contained poems and later asked me to help him to write his first poem. We practiced together a few times, but later he then came up with his very own production of a poem. He agreed to give us this poem as a contribution to our library and as such we also give it as a testimony to other kids to learn and emulate him.

2. Bwalya, a girl aged 9 years old and a resident of garden. She stopped school in grade 1 at Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe primary school due to lack of funds in 2018. She has since been coming for the mobile library sessions and MYEP has taken her back to school by helping to get her shoes, books and school uniforms, and the school returned her in grade 2 where she will receive extra lessons to catch up with her fellow pupils. She is able to write her name and likes coloring pictures.

3. “I was a lonely boy and rarely spoke to anyone,” says Mumubiyana, a boy aged 11 years old and stays in Libala South. He joined the group of kids in Libala South after his mother learnt about the MYEP kids’ reading group. “I now have a lot of friends and can read storybooks to other children. It is a lot of fun.”